Stereological evaluation of volumetric asymmetry in healthy human cerebellum.
OBJECTIVE
Age-related volumetric differences in brain anatomy or volumetric brain analyses in many disorders are of interest. Delineating the normal anatomical cerebellar volume is of importance for both the anatomists and clinicians. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the cerebellar volume using a stereological technique and to determine the possible volumetric asymmetry depending on age and gender.


METHODS
Volumetric asymmetry of cerebellar hemispheres was evaluated using stereological method on the magnetic resonance images (MRI) of healthy male and female subjects. Randomly selected individuals (27 males, 27 females) aged between 10-86 years who have normal brain MRI were enclosed in the study. All the subjects were right handed. The individuals were divided into three groups according to age as 18-34 (young), 35-60 (middle aged) and 60-84 (elder) and their MRI images were analyzed. The data set were analyzed by two factor repeated measure analysis.


RESULTS
Although the cerebellum was smaller between young and middle aged groups and also middle aged and elder groups, there were no any statistically significant differences between compared groups' mean (P > 0.05). There were not statistically differences according to sex and age groups (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
There was no cerebellar asymmetry between compared groups. The stereological evaluation of cerebellar asymmetry in humans correlate with both gender and age groups is of importance for both clinicians and anatomists. The technique is simple, reliable, unbiased and inexpensive.
Gocmen-Mas
Nuket
N
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. nuketgocmen@yahoo.com
Pelin
Can
C
Canan
Sinan
S
Yazici
Ayse Canan
AC
Zagyapan
Ragiba
R
Senan
Sevda
S
Karabekir
Hamit Selim
HS
Sahin
Bunyamin
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size